The effect of formative assessment on high school students' mathematics achievement and attitudes

The main purpose of the study was to examine the effects of formative assessment practices on functions in mathematics teaching on 10th-grade students' attitudes towards mathematics course, their academic achievement and retention of learning, and students' views on formative assessment practices. In the research, the embedded quasi-experimental design (nested mixed-method design), one of the mixed-method, was used. The quasi-experimental process of the study was applied in a high school in the city center of Kahramanmaraş for twelve weeks in the 2019-2020 academic year. The experimental and control groups were randomly assigned from the 10th graders attending secondary education without changing their class structure. There are a total of 51 students in the study group, 26 in the experimental group and 25 in the control group. In the manipulation process, the teaching of the lesson in the experimental group was carried out on the basis of formative assessment applications developed in accordance with the secondary school mathematics course program outcomes. In the control group, the teaching of the lesson was carried out in line with the current curriculum. In the study, Function Academic Achievement Test and Mathematics Attitude Scale were used as quantitative data collection tools. A semi-structured interview form, thinking diaries and researcher diary was used as a qualitative data collection tool. In the quantitative dimension of the study, a two-factor quasi-experimental design with pre-test and post-test control groups was used. The analysis of the quantitative data obtained was performed with independent groups t-test and two-way analysis of variance for mixed measurement ANOVA. In the qualitative dimension of the research, the analysis of the obtained data was carried out by content analysis. According to the results of the experiment, formative assessment practices in the 10th-grade mathematics lesson had a statistically significant effect on students' attitudes towards mathematics lesson and their mathematics achievement, but there was no statistically significant effect on the permanence of learning. According to the qualitative results of the study, formative assessment practices were beneficial in terms of contributing to learning processes, encouraging students to express themselves in the classroom, express their opinions. Lastly, students generally had positive views on formative assessment practices. Keywords: Formative assessment, teaching mathematics, academic achievement, attitude